 | The Warwick woodlands, or, Things as they were there, ten years ago |  |
ADVERTISEMENT.
The principal part of the papers collected in this little
volume, appeared originally in that very excellent Magazine,
the New York Turf Register, under the editorship of its
present accomplished and able conductor, William T. Porter.
It is to the favorable opinion of this gentleman that may
be attributed the attempt to lay before the public a picture of
the field sports of America, coupled with slight sketches of
character, descriptions of wild scenery, and inquiries into
the habits and qualities of those denizens of the woods and
waters, which are so little known except upon the table—a
picture which, it was hoped, might tend to diminish the prejudice,
which in those days obtained, far more than at present,
against the “Gentle Craft of Venerie;” and to counteract
the idea that sportsmanship is a mere love of killing; a brutal,
and brutalizing, gratification of animal propensities alone; as
contradistinguished from the ennobling tendency of mental
enjoyments.
How far these papers were successful to the end at which
they aimed, this is not the place, nor is the writer the person,
to declare.
It is sufficient for his present purpose to state that the
reasons which led to the adoption of a nom de guerre have
long since passed away; although habit and convenience have
induced him to retain, under his sporting articles, a signature
which has become more familiar than his own to the sporting
world; while time has rendered the alias so transparent, that it
is hardly necessary to acknowledge the identity between
“Frank Forester” and Henry William Herbert.
These papers having appeared at distant intervals, and, to
some degree, in different publications, the flattering request of
many known, and yet more unknown friends, has determined
the author on revising and collecting those which constitute
this little volume.
Should they be so fortunate as to meet that favor, which he
is emboldened to hope from the previous good will of his
readers, it may not be many months ere he will venture to
introduce them to the interior of “My Shooting Box,” in the
character of old acquaintances.
Philadelphia, March 1, 1845.
| The Warwick woodlands, or, Things as they were there, ten years ago | |